Monsters Like Us
by Ledi
Summary: A collection of drabbles involving several Kingdom Hearts characters and OCs. For Larkbyrd.
1. Notori x Jun

Setting: Pre-RP, home planet of the Reapers during its destruction.

Characters: Notori, Jun, mentions of Jirou and Chiyo.

Notes: Jun is much, much younger than the tough girl during her story. Before she was hardened from Reaper training, she was actually quite soft and kind to everyone, and very, very in love with Notori.

* * *

When the Heartless swarmed our planet and took over the very heart of the world, all I wanted was to run and hide. I thought not of my sister or my father, and least of all my mother across town who had always taken care of herself, but of me and the future I had.

When a world collapses halfway across the universe, all we see is its star blinking out. When a world collapses while you're standing on its soil, you see nothing but blackness and feel nothing but dread. It's not as peaceful as the fading of light.

Our world had been beneath the blood red banner of war against the Heartless for hundreds of years. Our city is close, one of the border worlds to Kingdom Hearts. When the earth shook with a thousand Heartless feet and I left my home with only the clothes on my back, the moon had changed into the symbolic heart shape. A white castle grew against the sky, hulking and forcing a shadow over what was already aptly named Dark City.

A fire ripped through the sky, and I looked up to wish my life away on a shooting star. It wasn't a star, but my father's gummi ship, stocked and loaded for months now in preparation to abandon our lost planet, flying away and leaving me behind. How many had he promised to take with him? Everyone who swore themselves to his Code and called themselves a Reaper had a room on that vessel, yet there he was, the great Jirou, launching and leaving us all behind.

The other Reapers were fighting. I could sense the turmoil in their hearts as they struck down shadow after shadow only to see my father forgetting them in his rush. There was no use for me. I had barely begun my training, and taking down an army of Heartless was no task for a child. Instead I ran with my arms pumping at my sides and my legs screaming in agony.

"Jun-bug!"

His voice! It called through the darkness and took my worries away. My Master, Notori! His scythe cut through the Heartless and he grabbed me to his body.

"Your father left us," he said. "He took Chiyo away from me. He didn't think we had a chance to win this one."

"We don't," I cried. "He left without us? We're going to-" But I couldn't say what we were going to do, because I didn't want it to be true. I still had some faith that now that I was with Notori, I was safe.

"Nah, we're getting out of here. Your father kept a few secrets of his own for just me and him." He sliced another wave of Heartless away as we tucked into an alleyway. I reminded myself that Notori was my father's first and only true apprentice, that the other Reapers were merely men who already showed promise. They each had apprentices of their own and taught them things unlike my father. Each small sect had their own secrets.

"Hold onto me," he said.

"Always," I said.

He held his hand up and opened a shadowy door. It looked like what the Heartless used to travel back and forth from our planet and wherever they rested. He scooped me up and took me through the door. I reveled in the way his pale face looked against the night sky.

He loved my sister. I loved him. I was just a shadow of my sister to everyone, even Notori, but I was his apprentice. My sister wasn't the one he had saved, but me.

"Notori," I said as we dove into the darkness. The door closed behind us, and I could see nothing. Our planet was swallowed up.

"It's okay," he said. "I'll always be here for you."


	2. Notori x Simon

Setting: Twilight Town, just after Jun and crew have left the world following their fight with Notori.

Characters: Notori, Simon, mentions of Jun and Sydney.

Note: We never find out what happened after Jun and the others left Simon to die in Notori's hands. I like to pretend it went something like this.

* * *

"_Why don't you back off her, wretched stalker?"_

_Want to say something to my face now that you're here?_

"_Fuck you."_

_Look, you have two choices here. I'll leave you to bleed to death in the forest, or I'll heal you and you can become like me, scythe and all. You'll have more power than you ever imagined, the power of the darkness under your command. Don't be scared now. Want to live or die, kiddo?_

"_Live..."_

He's not even conscious when I perform the ceremony. I take my hand and push it through my chest, return with glistening red heart strings attached. It's a strange feeling, a good high, ripping into your own chest. It's soothing.

Pushing into another's chest is a lot like sex. There's a connection there that you don't get by doing anything else, and you start to think like them, smell like them, and taste what they last ate. Simon had a popsicle.

I let my hand linger in his chest, attaching each heart string to different pieces of his heart. I feel his memories becoming mine. I'm a curious bastard by nature, but I hadn't thought I'd stumble upon something so morbid. The boy didn't fit in his own skin, and he didn't want to be there. He loved his sister—or lusted after her, the two concepts are sadly separated by such a thin line. He had sex with her, not just once or twice, but several times. He had a dark obsession with fire and burning. He hated himself, his parents, his family, his world. He hated until his heart was black.

Why he had tried to save Jun I won't understand. Then again, her heart is as black as his. I've seen it in all its selfish desires, the need to escape and keep herself safe over the fate of others. She even ran off and left him to death. Then again, so did his sister. She might prove to be an interesting toy in the future.

I remove my hand from his chest and revel in his memories. I pick up the boy called Simon and hold him tightly against me, cradled like a bride. He was in love with his friend, Chel, who had no feelings for him because he was simply _he_ and not _she_. Almost like I loved her but she didn't love me because I was _brother_ and not _lover_. Mere descriptions; they keep us all apart.

My ship is not far. As soon as I tracked Jun to this desolate planet, I practically crashed it in a quick landing. The engine is smoking, and I realize I'll have to fix it before we leave. Jun will have probably skipped two planets by the time I'm airborne.

I assign Simon a room in my makeshift home. It's such a small ship that he'll have to sleep in what was a closet. For now, I set him on my bed, a bare mattress since I don't own sheets. Why make fancy what you'll only destroy later?

He rests, breathing laboriously. He almost died, and his body is adjusting to the foreign heart strings. Not everyone takes them in easily.

I dig into a bag behind my door and remove one of my special mixtures and a needle. Master Jirou taught me to make these for when the extreme pain associated with being a Reaper set in. The older you get, the more you hurt. I remember his pain, his crying into the night and screaming for release. It scared me then; it scares me more now that I may become him in a few years.

Age to a Reaper is death, but moreso than a normal human. We die from the inside out, our hearts blackening and rotting like an over ripened piece of fruit. We're walking Heartless with all of our mental capacities in tact. When our heart disappears, when we finally scream with our last breath filled with pain, then we become a Nobody. Our heart goes on to live in complete darkness, nothing but a dead thing, and our body becomes a consciousness of its own.

I wonder if Jirou's Nobody is still roaming the cosmos.

I shoot up with the mixture. I'm not even in pain, but I want to curb it before it sets in. Prevention is the best cure.

The room spins a bit. My head spins in the opposite direction. My heart floats like a beacon in my chest, and I'm drawn back to the boy I've brought with me. His heart is darkening up nicely.

I sit on the edge of my bed and stare down at him. He reminds me of someone, a person that the potion has blocked from my memory. I know her face and her purple hair and her green eyes, but not her name. I had been after her just a few seconds ago, but now she's gone. I crave her presence, but she's not here, and I don't know where to find her.

"Simon," I cry, leaning down and pressing my forehead to his shoulder. "Simon, Simon. Don't leave me, too." First the girl who didn't love me because of our blood, and then the girl who left me because I didn't love her. Both of them have the same face, but I can't remember their names.

Why can't I remember their names?

Simon's hand shoots up of its own accord and cradles the back of my head. He's not even conscious of doing it. His body is still resting, his heart healing. I shake uncontrollably and grab the rest of my potion and needle sitting on the bedside table. He doesn't deserve this pain, the pain I put him in with my scythe. My darkness carving onto his.

I take his arm and shoot the potion into him. His whole body relaxes. My drug is now his. His heart is now mine.

It seems like a good trade.


	3. Seifer x Sydney

Setting: Jun's ship after escaping the fight with Notori.

Characters: Seifer, Sydney, mentions of Jun.

Notes: Seifer tries to be sweet but fails miserably.

* * *

We barely escaped with our asses, and yet she's more upset about leaving her fucking brother behind. I mean, I guess I can understand that, but I left Fuu and Rai behind. Then again, they're not dying. Simon is.

Or did. Past tense.

Whatever.

Jun assured us that he was dead by the time we boarded the ship. She said that guy, Notori, is some kind of psychopath who wants to kill her, and by extension, us, and all for something to do with her stealing his gummi ship.

I really can't stand the purple haired annoyance. She broke my wrist, and the thing is still in a damn sling. It hurts like a thousand needles, and I wonder if the doctor I saw after the injury set it wrong. He seemed like a stuck up ass who didn't give a damn about me. Called me a punk when he thought I wasn't listening. I heard him all right, even flipped him off behind his back. Maybe his nurse saw that. Maybe that's why my wrist still hurts.

Sydney wanted to sleep with me tonight, and I didn't have the heart to shove her into her own room. After we got on this ship, she begged me to hug her. I hugged her and let her mourn for the family she was leaving behind, for the brother she'd never see again. I didn't want to say anything, but I was kinda glad Simon was gone. I always thought he was a creeper and didn't treat anyone like he should. But of course, telling that to Sydney would've got me slapped in the face, so I kept it to myself.

She was almost invisible when she came to Twilight Town. She didn't fit in with anyone, not even Roxas (or should I say Rox-Ass) who accepted everyone into his group of rejects. He was a newbie and nobody liked him except for Hayner and that fat kid he always hung out with. The girl was cute, Olette, but she had it for Hayner so bad that everyone knew but him. Even Sydney could've seen that shit, like graffiti on a wall plain as day.

The hum of the ship is soothing, but it gets bumpy every now and then. Sydney rolls over in her sleep, and I can't fucking sleep at all. I'm glad she is though. It's giving me a break from hearing her cry. It's not so much annoying as painful. When she's crying, it cuts through me like a knife. Hurts worse than Jun breaking my wrist. But I won't tell her that.

Sydney wraps an arm around my waist and leans on my wrist. I fuck and shit a bit, whispering the curses beneath my breath as I push her off. "God damn, that hurt," I mumble.

She opens her eyes like she was awake the whole time.

"Hey, I'm sorry for choking you in that alleyway," I say. "Jun wouldn't have snapped me like a twig if I hadn't been messing with you."

She says nothing, but instead leans down and kisses my wrist. When she settles her head back on my shoulder, I know that she has been asleep this whole time.

"I'm still sorry," I say. "And that's the only apology you'll get."


End file.
